80 police officers fired in Turkey following wiretapping scandal

Some 80 police officers of Istanbul and the head of Turkish National Intelligence Agency's Istanbul Branch were fired, Turkish Milliyet newspaper said on April 15.

The reason for this was the illegal wiretapping of government officials' phone conversations.

Earlier, Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala said that 150 officials of various government agencies were dismissed with regard to the illegal wiretapping of phone conversations.

He said the measures are underway to identify the organizers of the illegal wiretapping.

Turkish media reported on February 25 that in 2011 telephone conversations of about 7,000 people associated with the representatives of both the ruling and opposition parties, including family members of Turkish PM were wiretapped as part of the anti-terrorist operation carried out by the Istanbul prosecutor's office against the Salam terrorist organization.

The telephone conversations of Turkish intelligence head Hakan Fidan were also wiretapped during the anti-terrorist operations.

Following this, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Fatullah Gulen [Islamic public figure who currently resides in the U.S.] and representatives of his movement of standing behind the wiretapping scandal.

Erdogan also stressed that Gulen movement, which he earlier called a "parallel structure", proved with its anti-state activities that it is not a religious movement, but a politicized and illegal structure.

Earlier, the PM called on Gulen not to intervene in Turkey's internal affairs and accused the U.S. of supporting him.

The council member of Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party, Mazhar Bagli said that all the actions of Gulen and his supporters are aimed at undermining the country's national interests.

Gulen is the founder of the Hizmet public movement, as well as, the Turkish Journalists and Writers Foundation.